Please note that this document is provided in order to document
Debian's history. While the general ideas still apply some details
changed.
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Appendix
The Debian Manifesto
********************
The Debian Linux Manifesto
Written by Ian A. Murdock
Revised 01/06/94
What is Debian Linux?
=====================
Debian Linux is a brand-new kind of Linux distribution. Rather than
being developed by one isolated individual or group, as other
distributions of Linux have been developed in the past, Debian is being
developed openly in the spirit of Linux and GNU. The primary purpose
of the Debian project is to finally create a distribution that lives up
to the Linux name. Debian is being carefully and conscientiously put
together and will be maintained and supported with similar care.
It is also an attempt to create a non-commercial distribution that will
be able to effectively compete in the commercial market. It will
eventually be distributed by The Free Software Foundation on CD-ROM,
and The Debian Linux Association will offer the distribution on floppy
disk and tape along with printed manuals, technical support and other
end-user essentials. All of the above will be available at little more
than cost, and the excess will be put toward further development of
free software for all users. Such distribution is essential to the
success of the Linux operating system in the commercial market, and it
must be done by organizations in a position to successfully advance and
advocate free software without the pressure of profits or returns.
Why is Debian being constructed?
================================
Distributions are essential to the future of Linux. Essentially, they
eliminate the need for the user to locate, download, compile, install
and integrate a fairly large number of essential tools to assemble a
working Linux system. Instead, the burden of system construction is
placed on the distribution creator, whose work can be shared with
thousands of other users. Almost all users of Linux will get their
first taste of it through a distribution, and most users will continue
to use a distribution for the sake of convenience even after they are
familiar with the operating system. Thus, distributions play a very
important role indeed.
Despite their obvious importance, distributions have attracted little
attention from developers. There is a simple reason for this: they are
neither easy nor glamorous to construct and require a great deal of
ongoing effort from the creator to keep the distribution bug-free and
up-to-date. It is one thing to put together a system from scratch; it
is quite another to ensure that the system is easy for others to
install, is installable and usable under a wide variety of hardware
configurations, contains software that others will find useful, and is
updated when the components themselves are improved.
Many distributions have started out as fairly good systems, but as time
passes attention to maintaining the distribution becomes a secondary
concern. A case-in-point is the Softlanding Linux System (better known
as SLS). It is quite possibly the most bug-ridden and badly maintained
Linux distribution available; unfortunately, it is also quite possibly
the most popular. It is, without question, the distribution that
attracts the most attention from the many commercial "distributors" of
Linux that have surfaced to capitalize on the growing popularity of the
operating system.
This is a bad combination indeed, as most people who obtain Linux from
these "distributors" receive a bug-ridden and badly maintained Linux
distribution. As if this wasn't bad enough, these "distributors" have
a disturbing tendency to misleadingly advertise non-functional or
extremely unstable "features" of their product. Combine this with the
fact that the buyers will, of course, expect the product to live up to
its advertisement and the fact that many may believe it to be a
commercial operating system (there is also a tendency not to mention
that Linux is free nor that it is distributed under the GNU General
Public License). To top it all off, these "distributors" are actually
making enough money from their effort to justify buying larger
advertisements in more magazines; it is the classic example of
unacceptable behavior being rewarded by those who simply do not know
any better. Clearly something needs to be done to remedy the
situation.
How will Debian attempt to put an end to these problems?
========================================================
The Debian design process is open to ensure that the system is of the
highest quality and that it reflects the needs of the user community.
By involving others with a wide range of abilities and backgrounds,
Debian is able to be developed in a modular fashion. Its components
are of high quality because those with expertise in a certain area are
given the opportunity to construct or maintain the individual
components of Debian involving that area. Involving others also
ensures that valuable suggestions for improvement can be incorporated
into the distribution during its development; thus, a distribution is
created based on the needs and wants of the users rather than the needs
and wants of the constructor. It is very difficult for one individual
or small group to anticipate these needs and wants in advance without
direct input from others.
Debian Linux will also be distributed on physical media by the Free
Software Foundation and the Debian Linux Association. This provides
Debian to users without access to the Internet or FTP and additionally
makes products and services such as printed manuals and technical
support available to all users of the system. In this way, Debian may
be used by many more individuals and organizations than is otherwise
possible, the focus will be on providing a first-class product and not
on profits or returns, and the margin from the products and services
provided may be used to improve the software itself for all users
whether they paid to obtain it or not.
The Free Software Foundation plays an extremely important role in the
future of Debian. By the simple fact that they will be distributing
it, a message is sent to the world that Linux is not a commercial
product and that it never should be, but that this does not mean that
Linux will never be able to compete commercially. For those of you who
disagree, I challenge you to rationalize the success of GNU Emacs and
GCC, which are not commercial software but which have had quite an
impact on the commercial market regardless of that fact.
The time has come to concentrate on the future of Linux rather than on
the destructive goal of enriching oneself at the expense of the entire
Linux community and its future. The development and distribution of
Debian may not be the answer to the problems that I have outlined in
the Manifesto, but I hope that it will at least attract enough
attention to these problems to allow them to be solved.